John Piper in the recent video on the ordo salutis, compared regeneration and faith to electricity zapping a person and that person experiencing the effect of that zapping. He compared the zapping of the electricity to God's work of regenerating a soul, and the experiencing of the electricity to faith. The problem with all this is that Piper defines regeneration as the act of God, or to the cause alone, but not to the activity of the one zapped, or to the effect. This is an error. Notice what Archibald Alexander wrote:
"Evangelical repentance, conversion and regeneration, are substantially the same. They all signify a thorough change of views, affections, purposes and conduct; and this change is every where declared to be essential to salvation."
"Sometimes regeneration is considered distinctly from the acts and exercises of the mind which proceed from it, but in the Holy Scriptures the cause and effect are included; and we shall therefore treat the subject in this practical and popular form. The instrumentality of the word can never derogate from the efficient agency of the Spirit in this work. The Spirit operates by and through the word. The word derives all its power and penetrating energy from the Spirit. Without the omnipotence of God the word would be as inefficient as clay and spittle, to restore sight to the blind."
See here
A man cannot be said to have been zapped (regenerated) by electricity until he has experienced the effects of it. It is that simple.
See here for the rest of Alexander's words.
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